Critics say CTA favors profits over poor with new system (Trib Article)

The CTA was accused of putting the profits of its corporate partners ahead of the needs of poor people during a hearing Monday night on a new fare-payment system set to debut this summer. Jon Hilkevitch reports about it here.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 15, 2013 at 3:57am

Breaking when scanning?  That's one I've never heard before.

I just recently got my 2nd card. The first one lasted 4 years intact, until it expired and CTA issued a new one.  The breakage issue may be a guy problem - sitting on it in a wallet/stack of cards that's not thick enough to prevent it from bending repeatedly. I keep mine in a bag or jacket pocket - no bending, no breakage.


David crZven 10.6 said:

The Chicago card works currently on Pace.    The problem is that it is badly made and I must "break" one or two a year.  (Usually when the warm card is placed near the cold "touch pad" causing it to fracture.   

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on March 15, 2013 at 4:00am

I find the smoother quieter ride of the new cars much easier to handle. Haven't tried taking a bike on one yet. I'll never be a fan of the sideways-facing seats, though. Much easier to deal with people stress, train delay stress, etc. while looking out the windows rather than the middle of someone standing right in front of me.

James BlackHeron said:

I would much rather take the soft rocking of the new Red Line cars over the herky-jerky sudden acceleration & slamming on the brakes wiplash roughness that is the Blue Line.    The new Red Line cars do gently sway like a boat so if one isn't used to riding in a boat I can see how it might be a little different and off-putting.   But it is so smooth and quiet inside.  For me it's an improvement by a couple orders of magnitude.   I suppose everyone has a different perception of this though.

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on March 20, 2013 at 4:18am

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-0320-cta-ventra-hid...

Uh oh.  The Trib's graphic shows a $2.95 fee just to reload the Ventra card via a credit card, something I do regularly with my ChicagoCard Plus for free.  A host of other nickel-and-dimes fees for "dormancy" (not using it), $2 to ask a question by phone, $10/hour for account research...  I may skip the Ventra card and just use my RFID-enabled credit card on transit next year (I just checked, and one of my credit cards is ready to go, while most of my other cards aren't RFID-capable).

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on March 20, 2013 at 4:25am

Ouch.  Those are some steep fees for things that shouldn't cost anything to do (particularly the reactivation/dormancy fee and the fund transfer between cards if you have more than one).  I haven't seen a deal this good for vendors since we had a leasing program for computers at work which we never did in my department but everyone else finally has realized was a scam, too.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 20, 2013 at 4:31am

Looks like another sweetheart deal for the "privatization" crony-capitalists given out by the typical chicago machine politician to their revolving door mega-corporation buddies.

All borne on the backs of the average fee-paying citizen who gets screwed once again.   

Can you say LAZ all over again?

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on March 20, 2013 at 4:34am

I wonder if my little Mobil SpeedPass key fob would work on CTA scanners?  I haven't used it in years as I don't buy gasoline anymore.  It could be more convenient than handling a card while boarding a bus.

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on March 20, 2013 at 4:38am

I think, reading the article, that this only applies to the Ventra cards with the "optional" debit card feature.    Thus a Ventra card used ONLY for transit, would not have these fees.   That being said, the fees are particualrly offensive as you are paying the company to hold your money without interest.  Your choice, have them hold a lot of your money without paying lots of fees (put a lot of money on the card) or hold a little money and get the fees.   As for using another card, isn't the CTA going to charge more for the users of these other cards?  And, of course, you can't have a monthly pass in such circumstances.



Tricolor said:

Ouch.  Those are some steep fees for things that shouldn't cost anything to do (particularly the reactivation/dormancy fee and the fund transfer between cards if you have more than one).  I haven't seen a deal this good for vendors since we had a leasing program for computers at work which we never did in my department but everyone else finally has realized was a scam, too.

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on March 20, 2013 at 4:48am

Oh, I think you're correct, David.  I didn't understand the Ventra card was split into two separate accounts, one for transit and one for general purchases.  I saw the Tribune graphic but hadn't spotted the accompanying article before posting here.

This, from the same article, leads me to believe you can do multi-day or monthly passes on a non-Ventra credit card:

"Some riders will decide not to use any type of Ventra card when it is introduced this summer and CTA and Pace begin to phase out existing fare cards through early 2014. Personal credit cards with the most up-to-date technology, called radio-frequency identification, will also be accepted as fare payment and to purchase multiday passes, and no convenience fees will be charged, officials said."

I still may try to avoid joining the Ventra system and just use my personal credit card.

Permalink Reply by Crazy David 84 Furlongs on March 20, 2013 at 5:14am

The devil is in the details.  It says "no convenience fees will be added".   It doesn't say that the fare will be the same.  The CTA currently charges two different fees at O'Hare, for example, one for a Chicago Card and the other for a "regular" fare card.  Nothing about convenience fees, but the prices are different.  My guess is that ultimately using the credit card won't result in "convenience fees" but will be at a higher price.  (And if it is not, I guess a clean carrying no balance RFID enable discover card with "cashback" may be the way to go...)

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on March 20, 2013 at 5:18am

improving infrastructure and trains > fare collection technology :)

Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on March 20, 2013 at 6:54am

Pretty clever stuff going on. This sort of sounds like the Wall Street investors-LAZ/Daley privatization deal but instead, for public transportation. The middle man here is collecting 75 cents for each one-time user. I would imagine that adds up over time. After the investment in all the technology, Mastercard will probably get a nice profit, and the city and it's politicians, their respective "contributions" for letting them (MasterCard)tap into the system. Privatization schemes NEVER look out for the poor. They're just for enriching a small minority. Am I missing something?

Edit:

I should also have said that the city is really desperate for cash. In this particular case, I'm not sure if anybody is personally getting rich out of this deal. This is probably done just to keep the political machine running.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on March 20, 2013 at 7:22am

I wonder if they have any plans of being able to accept NFC smartphone payment or have future expansion capability to do this?

I have a feeling this is going to be HUGE in the next couple of years as more and phones have this technology.  Just in the last 6 months the number of stores that can accept payment with a NFC-enabled smartphone has tripled or even quadrupled.   This is going to be a big thing in the near future and for the CTA not to tap into it now will be a mistake as they will eventually have to do it later when everyone is using NFC smartphone payments for just about everything like people do now with regular swipe credit cards.     

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